After competing at two rounds of
the Revolution Series and the International Belgian Xmas
Meeting at the end of 2015 rising British sprinter Sophie
Capewell lined in Alkmaar, the Netherlands January 9-10 for
the annual junior international contest.

Following the keirin win at the International Belgian Xmas
Meeting Capewell headed in as a favourite for the sprint
events. The two day event offered Capewell another chance to
compete against her main competition ahead of the 2016 season,
her last as a junior.

Race Day 1 - Sprint

Today I wasn't overly pleased with my qualifying, in fact I
felt as though I did a faster warm up jump than qualifying.
However I cannot read too much into the times as it was hand
timed and so we do not know whether it was accurate or not. I
qualified second.

The sprints were set out as a sprint ladder, consisting of
heats of 3-up sprints with the winner progressing to the next
'rung' and the looser moving down, the second place rider
stayed where they were.

Because I qualified in second, I was in the top heat with a
Czech rider Sara Kankovska, and a French girl Mathilde Gros,
who qualified a few tenths faster than me (the same girl who
had qualified quicker than me in Gent in December.

I won all three of my races, riding from the man one position
twice and from man three in the final. I was really pleased
with how I rode and the biggest difference was that I was more
confident in myself. You cannot take for granted how much of a
difference this makes to your riding! It was a great
experience to ride these races. It is invaluable to be able to
race abroad against other riders of your standard and above.

This along with gaining more experience by racing more is the
thing I feel was missing last year and something my coach and
I are trying to change this year. So far it has been
successful with this being my fourth competition since the new
cycling year riding international riders who have qualified
quicker than I did.

Overall, it was a good day!

Race Day 2 - Team Sprint, Keirin and 500m TT

Today was a busy day!

We started with the team sprint, which I was riding with
Lauren Bate-Lowe. It was good but I rushed the gap too
aggressively and quickly. It should have been a more
progressive acceleration as I overestimated Lauren's speed. It
went okay in the end. I enjoyed actually being able to ride a
team sprint with other sprinters, even though riding with
Ellie Dickinson at the Euros last year was great! I actually
have some female teammates, which adds a new dynamic! My team
came out on top! It will be interesting to see what
combination of the four of us will be the fastest!

Moving on to the keirin, it was one race dependent on the
sprint qualifying so the ridders who qualified seventh plus all raced
for places seventh onwards and the fastest six for places 1 to 6.
The keirin was a bit disappointing. First of all I didn't get
into the top three behind the bike and was behind Mathilde
Gros.

I was in two minds whether to be patient and wait for the
right time to attack or take it on which I did as soon as the
bell went, but I over anticipated the speed a bit I think. It
was alright because I held my speed and didn't slow down but
then I did a little too much through turn 1 & 2 into the last
lap when I should have just let Kankovska just get her
shoulder in front then come back underneath and so Gros just
rolled me on the line. I knew what I should have done as soon
as I came off which is always frustrating. It was a long
sprint. I also feel as though I am missing a bit of length at
the moment.

The 500m TT was alright but I knew I messed up my start as
soon as I left the gate and it just went downhill from there
because I died off in the effort.

Overall I had a great weekend racing and have bought a lot of
things away from this event! On to the next one.